Episode Information

Review

In this episode, we see glimpses of the future after the creation of
the Alliance.

This episode takes up with Sheridan and Delenn's return to B5 after
their marriage en route. The entire station is partying in
celebration of the marriage, the death of Clark, and the formation of
the Alliance. Certainly those are good reasons. Later, Sheridan and
Delenn privately ponder whether they will even be remembered in one
hundred years.

The scene shifts to an ISN broadcast about Sheridan's return, and then
the broadcast breaks up, and we realize that we are watching a
recording of some kind. An unknown person indicates that the next
record should be played.

This is an ISN talk show, where the host moderates a discussion
between several guests. The topic: will the new Alliance succeed?
Of course, there are a range of opinions with no agreement.

This "record" is a fairly realistic depiction of the various opinions
that people must have regarding Sheridan. Some see him as a hero and
some as anathema, but everyone's opinions are strongly influenced by
their particular political views and personal circumstances. Talk
about being like real life! It's obvious, though, that Sheridan is
not universally loved nor is everyone optimistic about the Alliance
that Earth has been essentially swept into.

The next record is 100 years into the future and features another talk
show. This show is in honor of the 100th anniversary of the
Alliance. Some experts are "deconstructing" the legend surrounding
Sheridan: his leadership abilities, what role he played in the events
of the time, and some story surrounding his death. Overall, the
experts feel that Sheridan's accomplishments have been exaggerated and
overrated. They list all the problems that he had as president of the
Alliance in the first year, with many people dying. We even see some
kind of record from B5, which includes a hostage demand, with
Garibaldi as the hostage. The experts opine that the telepath colony
Sheridan started on B5 led to the Telepath War.

They also agree that the "story" that Delenn is still alive must also
be Alliance propaganda. An alarm sounds, and then Delenn hobbles in
with a cane and several attendants. She states forcefully that
Sheridan was a good man, and then turns to leave. The others ask her
to stay and answer questions, but she scoffs at their "analysis" of
Sheridan. After she leaves, the "record" ends.

This "record" gives one of JMS's famous glimpses into the future, by
referring to several events that will happen to Sheridan, thereby
making us wonder how they happened. We know that Sheridan is devoted
to making the Alliance work, so under what circumstances would their
be so many deaths? How did Garibaldi get himself taken hostage? What
was Sheridan's motivation in creating the colony of telepaths? I've
said many times that he should pay more attention to telepaths, in
particular Lyta, but were his actions too late? What started the
Telepath War? We don't know when this war occurred, just sometime
within 100 years after the Alliance started. And what is the mystery
surrounding Sheridan's death that the Alliance continues to support?

I feel like Delenn's appearance in this segment is a bit of indulgence
of fan wishes - to see her come back and firmly trounce on all the
youngsters just by force of will. I do have to wonder why there is so
much speculation about what Sheridan and Delenn did. Aren't there
lots of records? One would also think that after events calmed down
with the formation of Alliance that many journalists and historians
would be waiting in line to interview Sheridan and Delenn in order to
produce numerous biographies and explanations of events. I suppose
that even so, after 100 years, contemporary histories would decide to
reinterpret events. It's frustrating to see Sheridan and Delenn's
accomplishments trivialized.

The next "record" is 500 years after the beginning of the Alliance.
We see a programmer of some kind, who is putting together holographic
representations of Sheridan, Delenn, Garibaldi, and Franklin. The
reason? To create new "historical documents" of these important
figures, showing them saying and doing things that agree with the
political views of the current government.

The holograms are supplied with recreations of each person's
personality and when they are activated, they begin questioning the
programmer about what's happening. They soon realize that they are
being used to create propaganda. The current government wants to
break away from the Alliance, so they want to have "historical
records" showing Sheridan and the others doing unsavory things. Why
do they want to break from the Alliance? The Alliance is holding back
the current government, which needs room to expand. Apparently the
world government on Earth has broken down, and there are a number of
rival governments on the Earth and among the colonies. The current
government is planning a pre-emptive attack.

Although the holograms are aghast at being used for propaganda, they
can't do much about it, it seems. The programmer runs a scene where
Sheridan, as commander of B5, executes captured aliens. In another
scene, Franklin gleefully discusses how the Alliance is conducting
medical experiments on children.

Garibaldi distracts the programmer by promising the help the
programmer get an advantage and promotion by his superiors. While
Garibaldi converses, his computer program personality is activating
communications in the computer. He transmits this government's attack
plans to the other nations, and those nations promptly attack.
Garibaldi and the others in the computer lab are destroyed in the
initial attack.

I think that I find this future "record" the hardest to believe. I
realize that 500 years is a long time and a lot can happen, but the
breakdown of Earthgov is hard to believe. What would be the advantage
of going from a world-wide government to smaller governments? And how
could smaller nations be powerful enough to expect to "expand" within
the Alliance by force? Why haven't the Rangers quashed this? I
suppose they can't until there is an aggressive action taken, but we
have no sign that they are being a problem.

I did like the manipulation of the language, with "real facts" and
"good facts"; it gives a nice Orwellian feel, and shows that even a
future that looks so bright and clean could be oppressive. It would
have been interesting to have seen more about what the general society
was like. It was extremely chilling to see the "reinterpretation" of
Sheridan and Franklin's actions on B5. After 500 years, how many true
records would remain, and who would have them in order to contradict
the manufactured history?

I didn't really swallow the idea that Garibaldi as a computer
personality can infiltrate the computer and do pretty much whatever he
wants. This kind of thing is a staple in science fiction, so I can't
say that this is a problem exclusive to B5, but it's annoying.
However, I did appreciate that it was Garibaldi who feels that it's
justice to call down a pre-emptive attack on the government that was
planning it. I wonder if he had any thought about what the consequences
would be? I suppose he didn't really have many options, and he's just
a computer program, anyway.

The final "record" is 1000 years after the formation of the Alliance,
and it takes place in the study of an old monk, Brother Michael.
Michael seems to be making some kind of recorded report, but is
interrupted by a young monk, who is unaware of what Michael is doing.
The younger monk is having a crisis of faith, and through his
discussion with Michale, we find out what's happened in the past 500
years.

The attack that Garibaldi instigated devastated civilization on Earth,
sending it back to middle ages technology and instilling in it a fear
of technology, since that's what caused the "Great Burn." The abbey
that Brother Michael belongs to is dedicated to preserving knowledge
and history from before the Great Burn, mostly by copying the ancient
books. The younger monk is working on transcribing and illuminating a
book about the "Blessed Sheridan", but is wondering if all the effort
is worth it. Michael reassures him, saying that he needs to keep the
faith. The prophecy of the return of the Rangers in the hour of
Earth's need might happen tomorrow or next year or after they die, but
that doesn't mean it won't happen.

Thus reassured, the younger monk leaves, and Michael resumes his
report. We find out that Michael is a Ranger himself, working
secretly to hasten the return of technology to the Earth. Rangers
off-world are providing "discoveries" for them at the appropriate
time, so that people will accept them as leftover from before the
Great Burn. Michael pledges to keep working along with the other
Rangers to rebuild the Earth - better, this time.

This is a fascinating sequence. It's a depressing thought that Earth
civilization still hasn't recovered after 500 years. We don't know
whether human civilizations off-world (such as on Mars) were affected
by the war, but there certainly would have been a significant number
of humans that survived the war and would be eager to restore the
Earth. The idea of the Rangers working secretly to help restore
civilization makes perfect sense. The use of a group of monks to
accomplish this is reasonable, and possibly a nod to the science
fiction classic A Canticle for Leibowitz. The legends about
Sheridan and the Rangers that remain are simultaneously amusing with
what we know about the characters, satisfying because they did
accomplish so much, and sobering because of how far it means Earth
civilization has fallen.

The "records" have come to an end, and we see that a human has been
watching them. The human orders the records to be sent to "New
Earth". We learn that something has happened to the Sun, and it will
nova within hours. The remaining civilization on the Earth has
evacuated. The human transforms into a ball of light and zips into an
encounter suit similar to what we've seen Vorlons wearing. The being
flies of in a spaceship with the Ranger symbol as the Sun explodes.
The episode ends by returning to Sheridan and Delenn musing about the
future, and deciding that probably no one will remember them in 1000
years.

My question about the end of the episode is: what happened to the
Sun? When it dies, it will go nova... but that won't happen for
another 6 billion years or so. So did someone do something to the
Sun? How and why? It's hard to believe it would be within any
civilization's ability to alter a star so significantly. And whatever
happened didn't necessarily seem upsetting to the human watching the
records. I suppose it's an unresolved mystery.

It is satisfying to see that in this human's time, one million years
in the future, that humans have progressed enough to become energy
beings, similar to the First Ones. I wonder what success they have
had in "raising" the younger races.

The structure of this episode is very unusual, but is successful at
linking such disparate scenes. The glimpses into the future are
thought-provoking. However, I feel like while this episode is
intellectually unusual and interesting, it's not as emotionally
satisfying. It's pretty talky, and the various characters we meet are
not all that nice (until Brother Michael), so we don't care too much
about what happens to them.